This article gets into some minor spoilers if you haven’t seen Anyone But You, but nothing outside of the realm of the “sexy” shower scene.
There’s been a lot of changes made to filming sex scenes on the sets of films and TV shows over the years. Sets are often more closed than they used to be, and intimacy coordinators are brought in to help with “big challenges” and to ensure actors are comfortable with what transpires when the cameras are watching. Of course, this doesn’t mean that every single ‘awkward moment’ can be avoided, as evidenced when Sydney Sweeney talked filming her steamy –literally and figuratively – shower scene in Anyone But You with Glen Powell.
In the movie, the two have a meet-cute early on but then through a series of miscommunications get to a point where they seemingly hate each other (but still occasionally have to spend time together). The very Much Ado About Nothing plot eventually leads to them hooking up again, and the shower scene very much makes it clear why Anyone But You landed an R-rating. It’s juicy. But for Sweeney, the most majorly awkward thing was not having to act opposite Powell but having to do so while 40 crew members were weighing in.
There’s always an awkward moment, but I don’t know if it’s because you’re so close to someone other than the 40 crew members that are watching you film this—that’s the awkward part. If anything, I feel more safe with someone who I’m friends with than some people that you don’t really know.
While the movie may not go down as one of the best romantic comedies of all time, one of the highlights of Anyone But You is the onscreen chemistry the Euphoria star and her older beau have. (In fact, one of the film’s funniest recurring jokes is the movie repeatedly winking at how old 35-year-old Powell is. The other is a joke about going “full Titanic,” but that’s neither here nor there.)
The steamy shower scene in question comes at a pivotal moment in the movie and comes off like it was handled super professionally by the two actors. But even Powell admitted in the same interview with E News! that getting advice from random people on set can be a very weird experience.
When we were doing that, there were other people weighing in on what we should do in that scene. I was like, ‘I don’t like when crew members are weighing in on how I should do a sexy shower scene.’ You start getting in the head of some of your crew members. You’re like, ‘That is weird, man. Can’t look at you the same way.’
The chemistry was so palpable when Powell and Sweeney presented footage at CinemaCon last year that rumors rolled around they might be a real-life item, which was perpetuated further after the Top Gun: Maverick actor reportedly broke up with his girlfriend.
However, Sweeney is currently engaged and she and Powell have denied the rumors. It’s pretty incredible when two actors have such good rapport that they are able to set the rumor mill whirring on the internet. Sure, it sound like it was occasionally awkward to jump into a shower together in front of literally 40 people, but they have proven they were able to get vulnerable enough with one another to pull off a very believable romance.
Next up you can catch Sydney Sweeney in Euphoria Season 3 and 2024’s upcoming movie set in the Spider-Man universe. Madame Web is set to release on February 14th. Powell also has a few projects in the works, including the upcoming Twisters film. Here’s wishing for fewer awkward moments in their futures.